Question

the owner of a bike shop sells tricycles (3 wheels) and bicycles (2 wheels), keeping inventory by counting seats and wheels. One day she counts 40 seats and 95 wheels. How many of each type of cycle are there?

Answer 1

Just from looking at 40 I picked 40 bicycles and went from there... I then for every tricycle I removed one bicycle and it increased one wheel... Then from there I could see that the answer is... 25 bicycles and 15 tricycles.

Answer 2

25 bicycles and 15 tricycles

Explanation:

The owner of a bike shop sells tricycles ( 3 wheels ) and bicycles (2 wheels).

In her inventory she counts the number of seats = 40

and number of wheels = 95

Let the number of bicycle are x and tricycles are y,

Then as per statement "One day she counts 40 seats"

equation will be x + y = 40 ----------(1)

Now as per second statement "she counts 95 wheels"

Equation will be 2x + 3y = 95 ----------(2)

We multiply equation (1) by 2 and subtract it by equation (2).

2x + 3y - 2(x+y) = 95 - 80

2x + 3y - 2x - 2y = 15

y = 15

Now to calculate the value of x will put y = 15 in equation (1)

x + 15 = 40

x = 40 -15

x = 25

There are 25 bicycles and 15 tricycles